AEON promises safety and security to our customers. To this end, we believe we have social responsibilities to fulfill when dealing with suppliers. In 2003 we established the AEON Supplier Code of Conduct.

Child labor prevention

We do not employ, nor do we support the employment of, children under age 15 or under the lowest age permitted for employment by national legislation, whichever is higher. We give priority to school attendance for persons under the age of 18 who are permitted to be employed by law, but are still subject to the Compulsory Education Law. We require such persons not be exposed to situations that are dangerous or harmful to their physical or mental development.

Prevention of forced labor

We require that employers never force or support the employment or labor of an employee against their will through assault, intimidation, confinement, or other means of restricting the mental or physical freedom of employee.

Equal opportunity employment and prohibition of discrimination

We require that employers do not discriminate against employees by basing employment, wages, promotion, training, turnover, retirement, etc. on the grounds of race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, place of origin, religion, academic background, physical and mental disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc., that employers do not support such discrimination, and that any employment decisions are made based solely on the ability to perform necessary duties.

Policy to reduce excessive work hours

We require employers to eliminate excessive labor from the perspective of legal compliance.

Policy to Support the Right to Earn Minimum and Living Wages

We require employers to prevent low-wage work (work below the minimum wage).

Health and safety standards

We require that employees comply with laws and regulations regarding minimum and living wages.

We assess disability compliance in all of our buildings and structures

In accordance with the Barrier-Free Act, we have implemented greater levels of universal design in all facilities. At AEON MALL Kumamoto (Kumamoto Prefecture) and AEON Lake Town (Saitama Prefecture) locations, where we first launched our universal design efforts, our construction incorporated input from groups for disabled persons; when these were finished, we also verified their usability.
Based on the results of the verification, we issued universal design guidelines with expert guidance, which are to be reflected in the construction of new malls and which will enable all malls to assess and implement universal design.

Strengthening the capabilities of suppliers (capacity-building)

In addition to employee training for specialty store tenants, we sponsor a customer service role-playing contests and VP contests to improve the skills of our suppliers.

With the goal of building a stronger awareness of customer service, we hold a customer service role-playing contest in which tenant employees compete with each other on the skills they have worked to develop on a daily basis. In addition to proposing attractive facility environments and products to our customers, we also aim to further improve service mindsets by having each employee consider the importance of providing smiles, greetings, and comfort. This year’s competition was the fifth, held in Cambodia with participation from approximately 200 tenant employees at two AEON Mall locations.

Visual presentation (VP) consists of the coordination and display of products according to factors such as customer traffic, unit purchase prices, the strengths of one’s own store, and other issues, displaying products in the most appealing way to customers. In VP contests, more than 5,500 AEON Store Association member applicants from around Japan come together to share their examples of visually appealing displays.

Bullying and harassment

We have established internal and external contact points for persons to report incidents of bullying or harassment report. These contacts are available to AEON MALL, as well as the employees of our business partners. The Whistleblower Protection Act stipulates rules and mechanisms for confidentiality, protection of whistleblowers, investigations, and corrective actions.

Access to Public Transportation

We design and develop facilities in consideration of access to public transportation such as railroads and buses. If necessary, we request transit bus lines stops or provide our own shuttle buses. In addition, the number of people using public transportation to reach our stores is an ISO target included in our key performance indicators.